Debian bug report logs - #738, boring messages

Message sent to debian-devel@pixar.com:

Subject: Bug#738: INN has problems rotating its logfiles
Reply-To: iwj10@cus.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson), debian-bugs@pixar.com
Resent-To: debian-devel@pixar.com
Resent-From: iwj10@cus.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson)
Resent-Sender: iwj10@cus.cam.ac.uk
Resent-Date: Tue, 04 Apr 1995 16:48:01 GMT
Resent-Message-ID: <debian-bugs-handler.738.04041643225287@pixar.com>
Message-Id: <m0rw70O-0000YSZ.ijackson@nyx.cs.du.edu>
Date: Tue, 4 Apr 95 12:42 BST
From: iwj10@cus.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson)
To: Debian bugs submission address <debian-bugs@pixar.com>
In-Reply-To: <m0rvyG8-0000YdZ.ijackson@nyx.cs.du.edu>
References: <m0rvyG8-0000YdZ.ijackson@nyx.cs.du.edu>

Package: inn?
Version: 1.4sec-7

I get the error messages shown below, in the `daily Usenet report'.

It appears that the news.daily script is trying to do things to
/var/adm (which should be /var/log).  However, because it is running
as `news' it doesn't have the appropriate permission.

I don't think it should run as root - that would definitely be a
violation of least privelige, and it might well cause other things to
stop working.

So, should I add the `news' user to the `adm' group ?  I could do this
in INN's postinst.

I could so something similar with Smail - atm part of Smail's regular
processing runs as root when mail would do apart from the need to mess
with /var/adm.

It seems to me that it would be better, rather than having INN and
Smail's postinsts mess with the /etc/group file (which they'd have to
prompt about, I think), to have these users in the group list for
`adm' in the base system.

The candidates are, I think, `mail', `news', `daemon', `lp' and
`uucp'.  The package maintainers for uucp and lpr probably ought to
have a say about this.

If we change this in the base system, is there a way I can say
`Depends: <something> (>0.93R6)' or whatever ?  It doesn't look like
the base system's /etc/group file, the /dev directories and so forth
are notionally in a package.  IMO they should be - this provides two
benefits.  Firstly, other packages can check which version is
installed.  Secondly, the postinst script can be used to bring old
systems up to date.  The package probably shouldn't actually contain
any files - rather, the files would be grandfathered in in the way
they are at the moment, but it would contain a postinst script to fix
things up that were forgotten in earlier revisions of the base.

This sounds like quite a lot of hard work, and perhaps it is, but IMO
it is necessary to make sure that the incremental upgrading really
works properly.  I've done similar things with my Smail package and
its configuration files, and it seems to work quite well.

Ian.

> /usr/lib/news/bin/news.daily: /var/adm/expire.log: Permission denied
> /usr/lib/news/bin/news.daily: /var/adm/expire.log: Permission denied
> /usr/lib/news/bin/news.daily: /var/adm/expire.log: Permission denied
>
> Renumbering active file.
>
> touch: /var/adm/expire.log: Permission denied
> touch: /var/adm/unwanted.log: Permission denied
> cp: /var/adm/expire.log: No such file or directory
> /usr/lib/news/bin/scanlogs: /var/adm/expire.log: Permission denied
> cp: cannot create regular file `/var/adm/news.crit.old': Permission denied
> /usr/lib/news/bin/scanlogs: /var/adm/news.crit: Permission denied
> cp: cannot create regular file `/var/adm/news.err.old': Permission denied
> /usr/lib/news/bin/scanlogs: /var/adm/news.err: Permission denied
> cp: cannot create regular file `/var/adm/news.notice.old': Permission denied
> /usr/lib/news/bin/scanlogs: /var/adm/news.notice: Permission denied
> cp: cannot create regular file `/var/adm/OLD/active.old': Permission denied
> touch: /var/adm/unwanted.log: Permission denied
> chmod: /var/adm/unwanted.log: No such file or directory
> ln: /var/adm/unwanted.log: No such file or directory
> touch: /var/adm/unwanted.log.new: Permission denied
> chmod: /var/adm/unwanted.log.new: No such file or directory
> /usr/lib/news/bin/tally.unwanted: /var/adm/unwanted.log.new: Permission denied
> cat: /var/adm/unwanted.log: No such file or directory
> mv: /var/adm/unwanted.log.new: No such file or directory
> mv: cannot move `/var/adm/news/errlog.old' to `/var/adm/OLD/errlog': Permission denied
> ln: /var/adm/OLD/errlog: No such file or directory
> mv: /var/adm/expire.log.old: No such file or directory
> ln: /var/adm/OLD/expire.log: No such file or directory
> mv: cannot move `/var/adm/news/news.old' to `/var/adm/OLD/news': Permission denied
> ln: /var/adm/OLD/news: No such file or directory
> mv: active.old: No such file or directory
> mv: /var/adm/news.crit.old: No such file or directory
> ln: /var/adm/OLD/news.crit: No such file or directory
> mv: /var/adm/news.err.old: No such file or directory
> mv: /var/adm/news.notice.old: No such file or directory
> ln: /var/adm/OLD/news.notice: No such file or directory
> touch: /var/adm/unwanted.log.new: Permission denied
> chmod: /var/adm/unwanted.log.new: No such file or directory
> ln: /var/adm/unwanted.log: No such file or directory
> mv: /var/adm/unwanted.log.new: No such file or directory

Message sent:

From: iwj10@thor.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson)
To: iwj10@cus.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson)
Subject: Bug#738: Acknowledgement (was: INN has problems rotating its logfiles)
In-Reply-To: <m0rw70O-0000YSZ.ijackson@nyx.cs.du.edu>
References: <m0rw70O-0000YSZ.ijackson@nyx.cs.du.edu>

Thank you for the problem report you have sent regarding Debian GNU/Linux.
This is an automatically generated reply, to let you know your message has
been received.  It is being forwarded to the developers' mailing list for
their attention; they will reply in due course.

If you wish to submit further information on your problem, please send
it to debian-bugs@pixar.com, but please ensure that the Subject
line of your message starts with "Bug#738" or "Re: Bug#738" so that
we can identify it as relating to the same problem.

Please do not reply to the address at the top of this message,
unless you wish to report a problem with the bug-tracking system.

Ian Jackson
(maintainer, debian-bugs)

Ian Jackson / iwj10@thor.cam.ac.uk, with the debian-bugs tracking mechanism

This page last modified 06:43:02 GMT Wed 21 Jun